This document compares and contrasts the Broward County and Polk County school districts. Broward County has over 267,000 students across 236 schools, while Polk County has around 100,286 students across 160 schools. Broward County places more emphasis on specialized programs to reduce dropout rates and increase technical education, while Polk County focuses on maintaining required fund balances. Key differences between the districts include student population size, local required effort taxes, and support for different ESE levels. Both districts saw increases in career education and virtual school enrollment.

1. FEfP Formula Factors:
Polk and Broward Counties
Tracy Miller and Megan Parker

2. Overview
Comparison of two counties
In-depth analysis of each county

3. County comparison
Broward Polk
6th largest school system in the
nation
30th largest school system in the
nation
2nd largest school system in Florida 8th largest school system in Florida
236 schools, centers, and technical
colleges
160 school sites
Approximately 267,000 students and
175,000 adult students
Approximately 100,286 students
ESE services provided to
approximately 48,000 students
ESE services provide to approximately
15,000 students

4. Emphasis Placed in Budget
Polk
Meeting Unrestricted Fund
Balance mandates
3% state mandated
5% board mandated
*Maintained through budget
surplus in 2016-17
PaPasco
scoBroward county focuses on
providing a majority of their
funding for schools while keeping
administrative costs low. This
includes specialized programs to
reduce dropout rates, increase
technical education instruction
and materials, provide teacher
training, and support extended
school year programs.
Broward

5. County Strategic Plans and Priorities Reflected in Budget
Broward
Broward county is proud to boast that it
has one of the lowest administrative
costs in the state. 93.7% of the
operating budget is dedicated to
schools/classrooms while 6.3% is used
for general admin.
The source of most local funding is via
property taxes (millage rate 4.536).
Local funding has slowly risen since
2012 with rising property values.
State funding has fluctuated.
Through careful planning, the district has
been able to forecast and plan for
severe cuts in funding that began in
Polk
One of the long-term financial goal is to
maintain a fund balance of 5% or higher
by 2017-2018. The District expects to end
at 5% in 2016-2017.
With rising property value, Polk has
increased local funding by $3 million.
Another long-term financial goal is to
decrease the debt to net capital outlay
revenue ratio to 35%. For 2016-17, the
budgeted ratio comes to 41.7%.
A final goal is to maintain an Investment
Grade Bond Rating of A+ or better as
assessed by Fitch Bond rating agency. The

6. Key Differences
Overall Student
Population
Broward - 267,000
Polk - 100,286
DCD Factor Broward - 1.0259 *higher cost of living
Polk - 0.9754
Local Required
Effort Taxes
Broward - 778,611,925
Polk - 137,979,553
Reported Weighted
FTE
Broward - 288,904.82
Polk - 107,181,13
ESE Support Level IV
Broward - increased from 28.31 to 40.11
Polk - decreased from 1.01 to 0.94

7. Key Similarities
Sparsity
Supplement
Factor does not apply
Declining
Enrollment
Factor does not apply
Virtual School Enrollment is up!
Career Education
Increases in Career Education 9-
12 and Industry Certified
Career Ed Supplements

8. In-Depth Look @
Broward County

9. 2016-17
Unweighted
FTE
2016-17
Funded
Weighted FTE
4,160.71 Times
Funded Weighted
FTE DCD Base Funding
0.748
mills
compress
ion
Overall
Funding
1st FTE 270,511.90 292,746.00 1,218,031,210 1.0259 1,249,578,218 N/A 1,933,189,700
2nd FTE 270,511.90 292,787.44 1,218,203,629 1.0259 1,249,755,103 0 1,937,556,301
3rd FTE 269,839.23 292,691.48 1,217,804,368 1.0259 1,249,345,501 0 1,936,036,568
4th FTE 269,767.31 292,432.00 1,216,724,747 1.0259 1,248,237,918 0 1,938,094,685
Broward County FEFP Formula
Counties with higher property values (Broward) are able to generate more funding than
those with lower property values (Polk). Required Local Effort for 2016-17 is 4.638. Mil
Discretionary compression will fund the difference between (1) the amount generated by a
0.748* mill levy and (2) an amount equal to the state average multiplied by the district’s
unweighted student enrollment. Unlike Polk, Broward receives no funds from this source.
(http://www.famisonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/16-17-FAMIS-FEFP-PPT.pdf)

10. Variances in FEFP
from 2015-16 to
2016-17
FTE Students Overall increased
by 0.8%
Millage compression adjustment
decreased by 7.41%
Broward revenue per student
increased 1.5%
ESE Guarantee supplement
increased by 11%
DCD increased from 1.009 to
1.0259
Large shift in ESE Level IV and

11. Broward County In-Depth
● There was a substantial increase in the virtual education contribution
component (590 to 18,270). For virtual education students, one student
would be reported as one FTE if the student has successfully completed six
courses or credits or the prescribed level of content that counts toward
promotion to the next grade (Florida Statutes Title XLVIII, K-20 Education Code)
● During the FEFP examination process, it was found that many teachers did
not have valid certifications for the field they were teaching, which does
not comply with State requirements regarding the determination and
reporting of full-time equivalent (FTE) students under the Florida
Education Finance Program (FEFP). Corrective action is being taken to
educate staff and administration about out-of-field notifications.
● Changes in the following categories were noted:
○ ESE support level IV - 28.83 to 40.11
○ ESE support level V - 5.99 to 0.86
○ Career Education Grades 9-12 - 7.88 to 27.09

12. Broward County In-Depth (cont.)
● There was a significant increase in Add-on (bonus) FTE programs including:
○ AICE Diploma - “An Advanced International Certificate of Education
(AICE) student may also earn an additional 0.16 if he or she receives
a score of “E” on a full-credit subject exam or an additional 0.08
FTE if he or she is enrolled in a half-credit class and earns a score
of “E” or higher on the subject exam. A value of 0.3 FTE should be
calculated for each student who receives an IB or AICE diploma”
(FDOE)
○ AICE diploma FTE increased from 40.50 to 147.90
○ AICE score FTE increased from 642.56 to 885.12
○ Industry certified career Ed. supplement increased from 464.30 to
790.05

13. Broward County has a well organized school choice program known as “Innovative
Schools”. This includes choice, magnet, and themed schools. Increases in
school choice (Cambridge Program, workforce education, STEM) would qualify
Broward County for these various bonus FTE categories. Broward’s support of
these programs, and their budgetary guidelines, have enabled them to make
gains in this area of FTE. Since last year, there has been a 243% increase in
career education 9-12.
The Broward County School district requires high schools to spend no less than
2.78 percent and centers to spend no less than 1.00 percent of the total
revenue for repair, replacement or updating of vocational equipment or for
maintenance contracts on vocational equipment (Broward School Funding
Allocations & Guidelines).
Broward County In-Depth (cont.)

14. Budgetary Concerns
Overage of the school resource budget has caused concern over school board checks
and balances. Although the exact shortfall was not known, the Sun Sentinel
reported “The department currently has $2.5 million in unpaid, unprocessed
expenses. That number is expected to hit $3.5 million by the end of the fiscal
year based on more invoices set to come in”.
● Background: “The school district has contracts to pay 23 city governments
a total of $6.8 million to place 149 police officers and Sheriff's
deputies in schools. But sloppy accounting practices resulted in cities
such as Hollywood being overpaid and Miramar failing to get paid for a
year and a half, the audit found” (SunSentinel)
● According to district auditor Pat Reilly, “Due to poor accounting
practices by both the police department and district unspent money (from
previous years) went back into the district coffers and was used for
other purposes. Meanwhile, the police department kept paying for previous
year's contracts with dollars from the current year, a poor accounting
practice”

15. Budgetary Concerns (cont.)
● Response:
The School Board agreed in May to pay $601,276 to Coral Springs and $2.1
million in June for money owed to Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Miramar and
Plantation.
In a written response to the audit, Moquin (Chief of Staff, Broward County
School Board) said “the district has taken steps to prevent the problems from
happening again. The district will approve and pay contracts in a timely
manner, ensure that money is available to pay all the contracts and move
bookkeeping operations to another district office (Sun Sentinel)”.

16. Federal Title 1 dollars were found to be misallocated in a 2016 audit.
Approximately 157 schools did not receive the proper Title 1 funding, while 19
received more funding than necessary.
Page 8 of School Board minutes (http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/auditdept/auditcommittee/2015-16/2016-0616/ac-2016-0616-
draft-minutes-042816.pdf)
● Background info: According to U.S. News and World report, 20 percent of all
Title I money for poor students – $2.6 billion – ends up in school districts with
a higher proportion of wealthy families. In 2016, Broward schools received 62
million in Title One funding, which equates to approximately $1,100 per student.
20% of Broward students are considered “poor”.
● Although the FEFP school funding formula provides weights and additional funding
for programs such as ESE, ESOL, AP, not such “weight” is given to school districts
based on free/reduced lunch or any other form of poverty.
Budgetary Concerns( cont.)

17. ● Superintendent’s most recent response:
“What we do in a district to determine the distribution of those funds is
that we rank the schools based on the percentage of students who qualify
for free and reduced meals in each school, and in a matter that was noted
in the finding, the school rankings changed after the district submitted
the original application. So the remedy for that situation is not to pay
back the money. The remedy is to re-distribute a small percentage of those
funds, maybe about 1 percent, to insure that the schools with the higher
needs received the correct amount of funding.” (Sun Sentinel)
Budgetary Concerns( cont.)

18. Questions have risen as to district management and oversight of funds, after
$145,000 designated for sod at area sports fields could not be accounted for
(http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-broward-missing-sod-20160505-story.html)
● Background: The district entered into a three-year-contract with Odums in
late 2013 for $350,000 worth of work. But maintenance officials told School
Board members last June almost all money had been spent, and they needed
additional funds for other projects, including high school football field
replacements at Coconut Creek, Pompano Beach, McArthur and Miramar. The
School Board approved $145,000.But it was unclear how the $145,000 was
exhausted. (Sun Sentinel)
● At a recent School Board meeting, maintenance and purchasing officials
provided what they said was a reconciled list of projects paid for with
the $145,000. But School Board members discovered numerous errors where
payments didn't match invoices. The list also included projects
completed before the money was requested last year.
Budgetary Concerns (cont.)

19. ● Superintendent’s response:
Superintendent Robert Runcie said more safeguards are needed. "What
kind of controls do we have in place so someone doesn't just pick up the
phone, call a sod vendor, have sod delivered to a school and who knows
where the sod could be?" Runcie asked. (Sun Sentinel)
Budgetary Concerns (cont.)

20. Under the direction of the Superintendent, budget instructions are issued to
each school.
All school and center principals have the responsibility of adhering to the
Budget Funding Allocations and Guidelines for the school year. Included in
these guidelines is the fact that schools are responsible throughout the
course of the year for maintaining a balanced budget (functional
area/commitment item). Funds should be transferred between functional
areas/commitment items in order to comply with this requirement (per
Florida State Board of Education Administrative Rule 6A-1.006). No
expenditures shall be authorized or obligations incurred which are in
excess of a budgetary appropriation.
Broward county School Funding Allocation and Guidelines
Funding allocations and guidelines are outlined each year in a publication
issued by the budget office of Broward County Public Schools. Below are
excerpts from this publication outlining district and school level control of
funds.

21. Union Relations
Broward County Teachers Union
strongly opposes the HB 7069 and
the budget. Officers are strongly
encouraging members to contact Rick
Scott directly with their concerns.
Unlike Polk County, Broward has
successfully negotiated contract
agreements for teachers, technical
school personnel, and education
support professionals.
Highlights of teacher agreement:
Economic Wins:
3 % for teachers on levels B through D
5 % for teachers on levels E through M
4 % for teachers on levels N through S
A $2,000 raise for teachers at the two highest levels, T and U
5.1% for Annual contract (AC) teachers rated Highly Effective
3 % for Annual contract (AC) teachers rated Effective
Planning Time Wins:
Two of the five pre planning days will be devoted strictly to teacher
planning without any scheduled activities
27 hours of professional development has been reduced to 24 hours
Teachers now have 2 work days to produce lesson plans when asked
Lesson plans may now be submitted electronically
Principal discretionary time has been reduced which allows for more
planning time (www.btuonline.com)

22. In-Depth Look @
Polk County

23. 2016-17
Unweighted
FTE
2016-17
Funded
Weighted
FTE
4,160.71
Times
Funded
Weighted
FTE DCD
Base
Funding
0.748 mills
compression
Overall
Funding
1st
FTE 100,286.10 107,038.25 445,355,117 0.9754 434,399,381 N/A $693,219,143
2nd
FTE 100,286.10 107,043.65 445,377,585 0.9754 434,421,296 23,370,673 $695,683,376
3rd
FTE 99,873.08 106,746.07 444,139,441 0.9754 433,213,611 23,282,412 $693,506,817
4th
FTE 101,129.78 108,138.91 449,934,644 0.9754 438,866,252 23,796,849 $699,726,681
Polk County FEFP Formula

24. FEFP Formula Factors for Polk County

25. Variances in FEFP
from 2015-16 to
2016-17
FTE Students Overall
increased by 2.1%
Compression adjustment
increased by 10.8%
Virtual Education increased
by 152%
ESE Guarantee supplement
increased by 10.1%
DCD decreased by 42%
DJJ Supplemental Funding
decreased by 14%

26. Newsworthy changes
$1 million contract for academic management company to
help 5 turnaround middle schools ($215,000 per school)
Property tax rate of $6.797 per $1,000 of taxable property
for the 2016-17 (35.2 cents less than 2015-16)
Source: http://www.theledger.com/news/20160906/polk-county-school-board-oks-1-million-contract-to-help-5-
turnaround-schools

27. Additional Changes
$3.5 million to pay back teachers who didn’t get their advanced-
degree pay, a requirement from a court case the district lost
$2.35 million for testing coordinators at middle and high schools
$600,000 for more physical education paraeducators at large schools
$83,000 for elementary office secretaries to work 12 months,
instead of 11
Source: http://www.theledger.com/news/20160628/polk-school-board-oks-new-items-in-2016-17-budget

28. Budgetary Concerns
New Construction
Polk has $447.7 million in
unfunded new construction.
Renovations and Repairs
Polk has $74 million in
unfunded renovations and
repairs.
Implications:
Sales tax must be voted and renewed in 2018 to fund projects.
Impact fees have helped, but are slow to build.
School Board members said it’s crucial the half-cent sales tax be
renewed so that the district can meet its capital needs.
Source: http://www.theledger.com/news/20161119/district-has-4477-million-in-unfunded-construction-needs

29. Budgetary Concerns (cont.)
State Budget Changes for 2017-18
District receiving $8 less per student
Resulting in $5.6 million shortfall
Losing Title 1 funds for turnaround schools under HB 7069
Implications
Polk could be operating below 5% but above 3%
5 percent only being reached by making an $8.4 million transfer in
capital funds and budgeting for $15 million in lapse funds

30. Budgetary Concerns (cont.)
Board Member Responses
Board members are in disagreement
Some want to budget to meet 5% guideline
Others want to budget to meet 3% guideline
Still others want to disregard guidelines to get funding in the
hands of schools

31. Union Relations
Polk Education Association strongly opposes HB 7069 and the
budget. PEA organized a protest.
PEA and PCSB are awaiting special magistrate decision,
expected in July
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees Local 2227 also awaiting decision
Represents non-instructional employees

32. Union Relations (cont.)
Contentious Issues
Halthcare
Teacher transfers
Teacher evaluations
Salaries (most contentious issue)

33. Union Relations - Salary
Union
Requested 3.41 pay increase ($10 million in Polk budget)
School Board
Seventh largest district, but fourth lowest in funding
Pay increase = 202 teachers laid off
Superintendent sent out email proclaiming zero layoffs

34. School-Based Budgets
Allocation Areas
Personnel (employee salaries)
Operating (weighted Projected Total Membership is multiplied by a per pupil
allocation)
Operating facilities (based on building sq footage)
Periodicals (per subscription rate of $37.50 times the number of
subscriptions expected by school type)

35. School-Based Budgets
Areas Managed by entities other than principal
Personnel (determined by district)
Instructional materials categorical (centralizing textbook purchases
at district level)
Discretionary Lottery Funds (managed by SAC)
Other funds (bonuses based on performance, i.e. IB and AP test results)

36. Thank you!